SOURCE: Trethewey, John. “Stage and Audience in the commedia dell'arte and in Molière's Early Plays.” In Studies in Commedia dell'Arte, edited by David J. George and Christopher J. Gossip, pp. 69-90. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1993.

In the following essay, Trethewey examines the influence of the commedia dell'arte on Molière's comedies.

The nine early Molière plays I want to discuss here are very varied, comprising the two prose scenarios, La Jalousie du Barbouillé and Le Médecin volant, which are the only remaining complete canevas (out of thirteen for which we have names) associated with Molière and his troupe, two one-act comedies, Les Précieuses ridicules and Sganarelle ou le Cocu imaginaire (the first in prose, the second in verse), two three-act verse comedies, L'Ecole des maris and Les Fâcheux, and three five-act verse comedies, L'Etourdi, Dépit amoureux and L'Ecole des femmes...